About Me

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Changes, changes, changes

Well, as the title says there have been some changes around here.

On my last post I left you talking about Memorial Day. We did have friends over for a very nice dinner. I had not decided what to have for dessert, but Dan thought that some homemade Orange Ice Cream would be nice - so we got the ice cream churn down (that we haven't used in about 5 or 6 years), got all the ingredients in the churn, turn it on ----- nothing! It won't work. Well, about that time our friends show up and see the problem - they run home and get their churn and we still have ice cream. (It's really more like a sherbet than ice cream, but it's still good!)

Wednesday was another quiet day of volunteering and Thursday was the Executive Committee meeting.

Friday morning we had breakfast at another neighbor's house - the last get together before fall. A lot of the neighbors on our street leave for the summer and go up north - in fact some had already left - but we had a nice little group and breakfast was wonderful with eggs, two different types of quiche, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, pastries, orange juice, and coffee. So much of the diet!

My mom had a doctor's appointment at 11 here in the Village. It was the first time I had been able to get her to see the doctors here, but she was on her best behavior. While she did get upset we did get a troubling diagnosis - the doctor believes she has Alzheimer's Disease but we are going to do some further tests to make sure. It would explain a lot of the symptoms that we have noticed but we shall see what all the tests that we are going to do in the next few weeks will tell us. I have been told to read The 36 Hour Day which I have started. It gives a lot of information, some of which is very disturbing. This looks like it is going to be a very difficult stage for us, but as I said, we will wait for the definitive diagnosis.

Dan and I left Friday afternoon for Lakeland and Lorelai's fifth birthday party (fifth birthday????? How did that happen?????) Mom did not want to come (another trait of the disease), but we had someone check on her a couple of times every day we were gone - which was just Saturday and Sunday.

My daughter that lives in Nashville had flown down on Thursday and we had some "family" time Friday night before the big birthday bash on Saturday. I don't know how many people were there, but the house was full and the kids had so much fun on the big water slide the kids got.

Lorelai, Ada, and their cousin Jake

For some reason I didn't take many pictures (well, I did forget to take my "big" camera, so all I had was my cell phone), but there were a LOT of people there! A boat load of kids, but Lorelai seemed to enjoy her birthday.

Anyway, Dan and I had to leave Sunday to get home for Dan's doctors appointment in Lake City on Monday. He had a ECHO first and then a doctor's visit immediately after. Well, it was decided, after MUCH discussion, that Dan would have an ICD (internal cardiac defibrillator) put in on the following Monday, June 12th, there in Lake City.

Tuesday was Lorelai's actual birthday and I was able to Skype with her before she went out to dinner with her family - there were pictures of she and Ada at Mellow Mushroom on Face book, but I don't know how to get them to the blog. Oh well!

Wednesday I wasn't able to volunteer again as I had to take Mom to Madison to the hospital to have a CT scan done. Then I got her home and settled.

Then I spent the rest of the day on the phone with the doctor's office as they could not do Dan's procedure in Lake City on Monday - it was decided that it would be done on Friday, June9th. I can not say enough how great the doctor's office was - they were so accommodating to get this done before us leaving town next Friday.Thursday night we went to a friends house for dinner.Fish, grits, beans, corn, hush puppies, cole slaw, pickles, and more.

He certainly enjoyed all the fish and we always enjoy the fabulous company!Friday morning we took Jessie to mom since Dan was going to have to spend the night in the hospital. It would give her something to do and we had one of her neighbor's check in on them while we were gone.We were on the road by 9:30 as his admission's appointment was at 11:30. We were a few minutes early, but we didn't have to wait long before we were called. I had done a lot of the pre-registration on the phone Thursday, so there wasn't much that had to be done - a copy of our insurance cards, answer a few questions, sign consent forms, and get his beautiful bracelet. Then we were taken straight back to the cardiac unit and he was set up on a stretcher. This was some what amusing since Dan is 6'4" and these stretchers seems like they were made for someone about 5' he had a lot of leg hanging off the end. Anyway, they got all the pre-procedure stuff done - the doctor came in about 12:30 and said they were going to take a quick lunch break and then it would be Dan's turn. Well, a quick lunch turned into a little over an hour but he was taken back about 1:45. I was told it would take about an hour, so I went to the cafeteria for some lunch (I hadn't had anything except one cup of coffee all day) and then I was back in the room before he was brought back. He was fully awake when he came back and was eating "lunch" by 4, and they brought him supper at 5:30. Anyway, he was taken up to his room about 7 - while it was a semi-private room there was no one else in the room but us. After getting Dan settled I made a quick trip to the car. I wanted to get the Life Vest to the box for return and possibly move the car since we were parked on the top floor of the parking garage. I was able to move to the second floor and then I went by the cafeteria and picked up a sandwich for supper, which I only ate about three bites of. I went back upstairs and got as comfortable as I could in the recliner by Dan's bed.. After a restless, uncomfortable, but for the most part, uneventful night we were ready to go home Saturday morning.

My Guy!The doctor came in around 11 and we were finally on the road a little before noon. We went through Live Oak so I could drop off his prescription for pain medication then I brought him home and got him all settled in his chair. Then I went and picked Jessie up - brought her home - then into town to pick up his medicine (which cost $.80, yep you read that right - eighty cents!). Our sweet friend had left some soup on the back porch - so I didn't have to worry about supper (thank you Joyce!)....

Well, everyone is settled in and I was so ready for "bed" last night. Dan is still sleeping in his recliner as he can not lift his right arm over his head for the next six weeks and he's afraid he would try while sleeping. So, I am still on the couch, but that okay, as it is really comfortable. I think we both slept pretty good last night since Dan didn't get up until almost 9 and I was up just a few minutes later.

Today we have spent the day quietly here at home. We've had a few rain storms and are suppose to have some more. I think I'm going to go down to the shop tomorrow and have the store manager take me off the schedule for the summer since I have so much coming up and having to be gone so much the next two months it's just doesn't seem to be fair to her to wonder if this is a week I'm going to be there or not. It just seems like it would be easier to be completely off the schedule until August.

I will be getting us ready to leave for Lakeland on Friday. We are going to keep the girls for a week - and spend four days at the beach. Dan won't be able to get into the ocean or the pool - he also won't be able to lift the girls - but it will be good to get away for a while. I will arrange for someone to check in on mom everyday and I will be telling her service coordinator that we will be gone - so that should not be an issue.

We will stop by the doctor's office in Gainesville on our way to Lakeland to have Dan's device checked - and then he has another appointment with the cardiologist in July. He also has an appointment with the PCP the week we get back from the beach along with labs. We'll be home for two weeks before I leave for Nashville to help my daughter who will be having surgery on the 10th. Then it's more appointments for me, Mom, and Dan. I guess this is going to be the summer of doctor's appointments.